Why Joe Keery wanted to separate Djo from Stranger Things

About a decade ago, Joe Keery landed his breakthrough role as Steve Harrington on Stranger Things, which went on to become one of Netflix's biggest hits. At the same time, he started secretly making music on the side.

In 2019, Keery independently released his debut album, Twenty Twenty, under the pseudonym Djo. He also donned a disguise at his shows to remain as anonymous as possible. But then something happened that he wasn't planning for: his song End of Beginning became a viral hit on TikTok, which completely blew his cover.

In an interview with Q's Tom Power, Keery says he opted to keep his identity a secret because he didn't want his music to be associated with his Stranger Things character.

"It was pretty much just to deflect from people being like, 'Hey, Steve!'" he says. "It was to, yes, try to have some sort of separation between the two so that somebody who wasn't a fan could just discover the music and listen to it without any preconceived idea of who did it or anything. Just to have a clean slate."

I still want to be taken seriously as an artist.- Joe Keery

Though End of Beginning came out in 2022, it was a sleeper hit that didn't blow up until two years later.

"I guess that's the way that the music business works now," Keery says. "With TikTok, it's like, if something catches a wave and is in the right place at the right time, it can sort of surf this huge thing. So I think that's what happened. It was just the perfect circumstances for the song to do well."

Now, at 33, Keery is back with his third studio album, The Crux. But despite his huge success in both TV and music, he still struggles with self-doubt sometimes.

"No matter what you achieve, I feel, you're always still dealing with the same demons and you're always still fighting the same fight," he says.

"I still want to be taken seriously as an artist. I still want to put out things that I'm proud of. I still want to live my life to its full potential. I don't want to be afraid socially. I don't know, it's like a big pot, I guess. And working through lyrics and writing these songs is like a way to just stir it up and not like fix the problem, but to vomit some of the problem out and hear it back."

The full interview with Djo is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Djo produced by Vanessa Nigro.